In this paper, we study a homotopy invariant cat(X, B, [ω]) on a pair (X, B) of finite CW complexes with respect to the cohomology class of a continuous closed 1-form ω. This is a generalisation of a Lusternik–Schnirelmann-category-type cat(X, [ω]), developed by Farber in [3, 4], studying the topology of a closed 1-form. This paper establishes the connection with the original notion cat(X, [ω]) and obtains analogous results on critical points and homoclinic cycles. We also provide a similar ‘cuplength’ lower bound for cat(X, B, [ω]).